BURY Hospice is to benefit from a generous donation from an historic financial institution.

Healthy Investment made the donation of £450 after its members recently completed a survey about their attitudes to ethical investment.

The Bury-based organisation was founded as a friendly society in 1835 and has its roots in the 19th century temperance movement.

Peter Green, chief executive of Healthy Investment, said: “I would like to thank all those members who took part in our survey.

"We were really pleased to be able to make a donation to Bury Hospice on their behalf."

Members who responded to the society's ethics survey, carried out last month, were said to have overwhelmingly backed its current policy of not investing directly in the arms, gambling, pornography, alcohol and tobacco sectors.

Around 90 per cent of respondents also said they supported the proposal that the society's Ethical With-Profits Fund should actively seek out investment in companies with good environmental and social track records.

Mr Green added: “We have our roots in the religiously inspired temperance movement and have always avoided investment in companies that are directly involved in socially harmful industries.

"With such a long heritage in ethical investment, though, we wanted to make sure our practices remained aligned with our members’ values.

“Based on the results of this survey it appears that members do still share the values of our founders.

"However, they do not simply want to wash their hands of social ills, they also want their money to make an active contribution to creating a better world, particularly in the field of environmental sustainability.

“We will be taking these findings on board and, over the coming months, will adjust our investment mandates accordingly.”

Healthy Investment is one of the oldest financial mutuals in the country and was originally known as The Independent Order of Rechabites.

The society's first headquarters were in Salford before it relocated to Manchester and then Bury town centre in 2007.

It currently has more than 110,000 members, offering services in ISAs, Investment Bonds, Junior ISAs, Child Trust Funds and Savings Plans; and investing their money in an ethical with-profits fund.